A majority of Canadians report that quality customer service is more important to them in today’s economic environment (58%) and will spend an average of 7% more when they believe a company provides excellent service. However, in a challenging economy where growth is harder to achieve, many businesses are missing out on this opportunity. Over [...]
The majority of post-secondary students (57 per cent) say they plan to work during the school year in order to help pay the bills, according to an RBC/Ipsos Reid poll. Three-quarters of students (77 per cent) believe working part-time during school will impact their grades, while six-in-10 expect to graduate with debt and 74 per [...]
Operating profits for Canadian corporations totaled $61.7 billion in the second quarter, down 1.8 per cent from the previous quarter. Statistics Canada reports overall profits were down despite the fact that 15 of 22 industries reported higher profits. The insurance and oil-and-gas industries led the declines. In the non-financial sector, profits decreased 1.5 per cent [...]
Victoria Keith, a budget-minded Mom in Brantford, Ont., has already dropped over $200 on back-to-school shopping – and that’s only for one of her two school-aged children. And while her kids would love to show off an entirely new back-to-school wardrobe, Keith feels the current economic uncertainty means it is no time to splurge. Instead, [...]
Thousands of young Canadian men and women are embarking on a huge change to their lives in the next few weeks as they leave home and enter university. It’s an exciting and demanding time – as students handle their own finances for the first time and make decisions on money and debt that can haunt [...]
Canadian parents agree that a post-secondary education is important for their children and they feel good about helping to pay the cost. However, according to the TD Canada Trust Education and Finances Survey, there appears to be a gap between what parents want to do and what they might be able to afford. While 87% [...]
Wherever you live or operate a business in Canada, you can’t escape being taxed, but the amount of tax will vary by province. PricewaterhouseCoopers has released its annual publication, Tax Facts and Figures, which is a reference tool to help understand the personal and corporate tax rates and changes across Canada. Highlights among the provinces: [...]
Tougher capital and liquidity requirements for banks would reduce the frequency and severity of any future global financial crises and the threat they would pose to Canada’s economy, according to a Bank of Canada report. The benefits of revised requirements would far outweigh the short-term costs that banks would likely pass along to consumers as [...]
Widespread flooding that washed out roads, swamped communities and drowned crops has taken a toll on Saskatchewan’s finances, but the government says its budget forecast still looks good. The province’s first-quarter financial update released Friday pegs expenses at $10.29 billion, an increase of $161.7 million from the March budget estimate of $10.1 billion. Most of [...]
A petition signed by more than 700,000 British Columbians angry over the harmonized sales tax is valid, says a judge who urged the province’s chief electoral officer to send the matter to the legislature as soon as possible. Chief Justice Robert Bauman of the B.C. Supreme Court said Friday that he wasn’t persuaded by objections [...]
Canadian SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) reveal a willingness to gradually loosen the purse strings on capital investments, but keep a cautious view on economic outlook and a steady hand on recruitment plans, say respondents to the second wave of a semi-annual HSBC survey of SMEs globally. Nearly all respondents across developed and emerging markets [...]
The New Brunswick government is implementing a new program this month that’s designed to increase access to credit and encourage small business expansion. The Small Business Loan Guarantee Program is a partnership involving the provincial government, credit unions and Caisses populaires acadiennes. Premier Shawn Graham says it’s his government’s response to requests by small and [...]
Small business owners in Canada are a happy group. According to the TD Small Business Happiness Index, 62% of Canadian small business owners would describe themselves as ‘very happy’ with only 1% saying they are ‘very unhappy’. This research – which examined the attitudes and behaviours of North American small business owners in a dozen [...]
Overall customer satisfaction with retail banks in Canada has improved from 2009, as Canadian banks have increased investment in technology and customer service systems improvements following the global financial crisis, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Canadian Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Study. Overall satisfaction with primary financial institutions averages 730 on a 1,000-point [...]
A report from the Central 1 Credit Union predicts the mountain pine beetle’s gluttonous binge of B.C.’s forests will cost 11,250 forestry jobs in the next two decades. And because of the lack of alternative industries, the economic analysis said another 9,500 indirect jobs will be lost in the Interior. It’s estimated that by 2020 [...]
